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Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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Police pull body from shallow grave in Gary mobile home park
GARY | A crowd of people stared in disbelief Wednesday evening as police investigators pulled a body from a shallow grave in the city's Black Oak neighborhood.
Lake County investigators found the body of what appears to be an adolescent male, county coroner's spokesman PJ Adams said.
The body had been buried about two years ago, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said.
An anonymous tipster from out of state called police Sunday, informing them a missing juvenile was buried in a mobile home park near the intersection of 36th Avenue and Colfax Street, Buncich said.
Police began following leads and conducted a search Sunday night, digging through the backyards and wooded area behind the mobile homes, police said. They questioned people at the mobile home park and took one woman in for questioning, neighbors said.
On Wednesday night, police were able to find the body buried 2 feet beneath a storage shed and a layer of concrete.
The body had not been identified as of Wednesday night because it was badly decayed, Buncich said. Adams said the coroner will conduct DNA testing on the body, a process that could take up to six weeks.
Neighbors believe the body is that of Christian Choate, a boy who had been reported as a runaway.
The Indiana Department of Child Services has an open investigation in connection with the Choate family, DCS spokeswoman Ann Houseworth said.
But no further details about the investigation or the whereabouts of any of Christian Choate's siblings were released.
Police confirmed that they have Riley Choate, 39, in custody in connection with the case. After police interrogated him, Choate agreed to help them find where the body was buried, Buncich said.
Police pull body from shallow grave in Gary mobile home park
GARY | A crowd of people stared in disbelief Wednesday evening as police investigators pulled a body from a shallow grave in the city's Black Oak neighborhood.
Lake County investigators found the body of what appears to be an adolescent male, county coroner's spokesman PJ Adams said.
The body had been buried about two years ago, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said.
An anonymous tipster from out of state called police Sunday, informing them a missing juvenile was buried in a mobile home park near the intersection of 36th Avenue and Colfax Street, Buncich said.
Police began following leads and conducted a search Sunday night, digging through the backyards and wooded area behind the mobile homes, police said. They questioned people at the mobile home park and took one woman in for questioning, neighbors said.
On Wednesday night, police were able to find the body buried 2 feet beneath a storage shed and a layer of concrete.
The body had not been identified as of Wednesday night because it was badly decayed, Buncich said. Adams said the coroner will conduct DNA testing on the body, a process that could take up to six weeks.
Neighbors believe the body is that of Christian Choate, a boy who had been reported as a runaway.
The Indiana Department of Child Services has an open investigation in connection with the Choate family, DCS spokeswoman Ann Houseworth said.
But no further details about the investigation or the whereabouts of any of Christian Choate's siblings were released.
Police confirmed that they have Riley Choate, 39, in custody in connection with the case. After police interrogated him, Choate agreed to help them find where the body was buried, Buncich said.
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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The girl told police she thought her younger brother was just sick that early spring day back in 2009.
She noticed he wasn't breathing, ran to her stepmother for help and was told she should try to revive him, authorities said.
The girl, who was 15 at the time, tried to perform CPR but soon realized her 13-year-old brother Christian Choate was dead.
What happened next Lake County Sheriff John Buncich struggled to explain.
As the girl watched, her father and stepmother wrapped Christian in two plastic garbage bags, placed his body in a plastic bin, loaded him in the back of a van and drove off, authorities say. Later, the couple returned covered in mud and the stepmother told the girl they had buried Christian and covered him "in concrete so he couldn't get out," the girl told authorities.
And there Christian lay, wrapped in a blanket with a Bible on his chest, until his biological mother called the Lake County Sheriff’s office and authorities unearthed the boy's body.
"This is a human being that just disappeared off the face of this earth," the sheriff said after announcing charges against the boy's father, Riley Lowell Choate, 39. "Someone should have said something. When it's a child, it just hits home. To be thrown away and buried like trash. No one should have that fate."
An autopsy showed the boy suffered “blunt force trauma to his body with internal bleeding and a skull fracture,” according to court records.
So far Choate has been charged with removal of a body from a death scene, failure to notify authorities of a death and failure to report a body to authorities. But Buncich said charges are expected to be upgraded after an autopsy ruled the boy's death a homicide.
Choate’s wife has been taken into custody and is being held on a warrant from Kentucky, Buncich said.
The investigation began Sunday night when the Lake County 911 center got a call from Christian's biological mother. She told police she had learned from relatives in Hopkinsville, Ky. that her son had been buried in the Black Oak mobile home park in Gary.
The mother explained that she had relinquished custody of Christian and a sister to their biological father in July 2005 because she did not want to raise them.
On Monday, police searched the trailer park using cadaver dogs but found nothing.
On Tuesday, detectives questioned family members about the missing boy.
Police were eventually led to Choate and police took him into custody on Wednesday on a larceny warrant from Kentucky.
Choate told police "he did indeed bury the boy" in April 2009, Buncich said.
"If I had to do it over, I'd have just called (police)," the father told police, authorities said. "But I was freaking out."
He claimed his daughter -- not the stepmother as the girl claimed -- helped him bury the boy.
Choate took detectives to an area behind a trailer, near a shed, and said the boy was there. He told detectives he wrapped the boy's body in a blanket, placed a Bible on his chest and buried him, first under lime, then dirt. He covered the area with concrete.
Detectives found Christian’s body about two feet under the ground.
After the burial, Choate told neighbors and friends that Christian ran away, but he never reported him missing, Buncich said.
After Christian disappeared, his sister -- now 17 -- fled to Kentucky to live with other relatives, her relatives said.
On Wednesday, detectives broke open the concrete and found Christian's body, Buncich said. He described the burial site as gruesome and said Christian's body was badly decomposed.
Buncich said if the sheriff's office had never received the tip, no one would have ever known the boy had been killed.
"He just fell through the cracks, unfortunately," he said. "How can a child just disappear and no one follow up?"
Alyssa Nieto, 18, who identified herself as Christian's half-sister, said she was separated from Christian and her sister when those two went to live with their biological father.
"I've been so shut off from my brother and sister," she said. "I feel like ... there are no words really. I feel really betrayed by the system that took Christian and Christine away from us and put them into a monster's hands. I feel a lot of anger. Christian is my brother and I knew one day we'd be reunited, but it wasn't supposed to be like this."
Nieto said she doesn't understand how Choate got custody of Christian. "He's a convicted felon and he got custody. How could they give kids to a murderer?" she said, swallowing her emotions. "I'm happy he's arrested. He should be put away."
Choate has a criminal history that includes battery, harassment and auto theft, according to court records. He was arrested at his girlfriend's house in Hammond.
The other children who were with Choate and his wife have been taken into custody by the Indiana Department of Child Services and the agency is investigating Christian’s death, spokeswoman Ann Houseworth said today.
Houseworth could not comment on whether there had been any past investigations of abuse or neglect involving the family, but she did say the agency did not have any open investigations involving Christian or the Choates at the time of the boy’s death in 2009.
The girl told police she thought her younger brother was just sick that early spring day back in 2009.
She noticed he wasn't breathing, ran to her stepmother for help and was told she should try to revive him, authorities said.
The girl, who was 15 at the time, tried to perform CPR but soon realized her 13-year-old brother Christian Choate was dead.
What happened next Lake County Sheriff John Buncich struggled to explain.
As the girl watched, her father and stepmother wrapped Christian in two plastic garbage bags, placed his body in a plastic bin, loaded him in the back of a van and drove off, authorities say. Later, the couple returned covered in mud and the stepmother told the girl they had buried Christian and covered him "in concrete so he couldn't get out," the girl told authorities.
And there Christian lay, wrapped in a blanket with a Bible on his chest, until his biological mother called the Lake County Sheriff’s office and authorities unearthed the boy's body.
"This is a human being that just disappeared off the face of this earth," the sheriff said after announcing charges against the boy's father, Riley Lowell Choate, 39. "Someone should have said something. When it's a child, it just hits home. To be thrown away and buried like trash. No one should have that fate."
An autopsy showed the boy suffered “blunt force trauma to his body with internal bleeding and a skull fracture,” according to court records.
So far Choate has been charged with removal of a body from a death scene, failure to notify authorities of a death and failure to report a body to authorities. But Buncich said charges are expected to be upgraded after an autopsy ruled the boy's death a homicide.
Choate’s wife has been taken into custody and is being held on a warrant from Kentucky, Buncich said.
The investigation began Sunday night when the Lake County 911 center got a call from Christian's biological mother. She told police she had learned from relatives in Hopkinsville, Ky. that her son had been buried in the Black Oak mobile home park in Gary.
The mother explained that she had relinquished custody of Christian and a sister to their biological father in July 2005 because she did not want to raise them.
On Monday, police searched the trailer park using cadaver dogs but found nothing.
On Tuesday, detectives questioned family members about the missing boy.
Police were eventually led to Choate and police took him into custody on Wednesday on a larceny warrant from Kentucky.
Choate told police "he did indeed bury the boy" in April 2009, Buncich said.
"If I had to do it over, I'd have just called (police)," the father told police, authorities said. "But I was freaking out."
He claimed his daughter -- not the stepmother as the girl claimed -- helped him bury the boy.
Choate took detectives to an area behind a trailer, near a shed, and said the boy was there. He told detectives he wrapped the boy's body in a blanket, placed a Bible on his chest and buried him, first under lime, then dirt. He covered the area with concrete.
Detectives found Christian’s body about two feet under the ground.
After the burial, Choate told neighbors and friends that Christian ran away, but he never reported him missing, Buncich said.
After Christian disappeared, his sister -- now 17 -- fled to Kentucky to live with other relatives, her relatives said.
On Wednesday, detectives broke open the concrete and found Christian's body, Buncich said. He described the burial site as gruesome and said Christian's body was badly decomposed.
Buncich said if the sheriff's office had never received the tip, no one would have ever known the boy had been killed.
"He just fell through the cracks, unfortunately," he said. "How can a child just disappear and no one follow up?"
Alyssa Nieto, 18, who identified herself as Christian's half-sister, said she was separated from Christian and her sister when those two went to live with their biological father.
"I've been so shut off from my brother and sister," she said. "I feel like ... there are no words really. I feel really betrayed by the system that took Christian and Christine away from us and put them into a monster's hands. I feel a lot of anger. Christian is my brother and I knew one day we'd be reunited, but it wasn't supposed to be like this."
Nieto said she doesn't understand how Choate got custody of Christian. "He's a convicted felon and he got custody. How could they give kids to a murderer?" she said, swallowing her emotions. "I'm happy he's arrested. He should be put away."
Choate has a criminal history that includes battery, harassment and auto theft, according to court records. He was arrested at his girlfriend's house in Hammond.
The other children who were with Choate and his wife have been taken into custody by the Indiana Department of Child Services and the agency is investigating Christian’s death, spokeswoman Ann Houseworth said today.
Houseworth could not comment on whether there had been any past investigations of abuse or neglect involving the family, but she did say the agency did not have any open investigations involving Christian or the Choates at the time of the boy’s death in 2009.
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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May 5, 2011 (GARY, Ind.) (WLS) -- A man has been charged in connection with his 13-year-old son's death two years ago.
Police found the badly composed body of Christian Choate buried beneath a storage shed and encased in concrete in a mobile home park in unincorporated Gary, Indiana on Wednesday.
Investigators have charged Riley Choate, 39, with moving a body from a death scene, altering a body and failure to report a body. He has not been charged with murder.
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Story: Boy's body found in Gary mobile home park
"He thus far confessed to removing the body from one trailer, taking it across the street and burying the body," said Lake County Sheriff John Buncich. "Wrapped him in a blanket in plastic and buried him in a shallow grave underneath the shed and then put concrete on top of the body. He also indicated at the time that he put a Bible on the boy's chest."
According to Buncich, the boy's mother called 911 Sunday after she received the information from someone in Kentucky. The sheriff says the mother lost custody of the boy and his sister and had not seen them for six years.
May 5, 2011 (GARY, Ind.) (WLS) -- A man has been charged in connection with his 13-year-old son's death two years ago.
Police found the badly composed body of Christian Choate buried beneath a storage shed and encased in concrete in a mobile home park in unincorporated Gary, Indiana on Wednesday.
Investigators have charged Riley Choate, 39, with moving a body from a death scene, altering a body and failure to report a body. He has not been charged with murder.
Related Content
Story: Boy's body found in Gary mobile home park
"He thus far confessed to removing the body from one trailer, taking it across the street and burying the body," said Lake County Sheriff John Buncich. "Wrapped him in a blanket in plastic and buried him in a shallow grave underneath the shed and then put concrete on top of the body. He also indicated at the time that he put a Bible on the boy's chest."
According to Buncich, the boy's mother called 911 Sunday after she received the information from someone in Kentucky. The sheriff says the mother lost custody of the boy and his sister and had not seen them for six years.
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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The impish grin in his school photo belies the life, and ultimate death, of Christian Choate.
He was 13 when he died, but small for his age.
Neighbors who knew him when he and his family lived at Colfax Mobile Home Park in the Black Oak section of Gary say that Christian was rarely allowed outside and missed a lot of school.
“They would have big birthday parties for the other kids, with cakes and everything, but Christian would be inside,” Lori Wingard of DeMotte said Thursday.
Wingard and her husband lived in Black Oak for a time and knew the Choate family.
She said Riley and Kimberly and “about 10” children lived in a two-bedroom trailer across the street from the woman who raised Kim and her sister.
Shortly before that woman died, the Choates moved “Granny” in with them and began improving Granny’s home, including a shed in the back yard.
It was under the shed’s concrete that police found Christian’s body Wednesday.
His father, Riley, 39, has admitted burying his son there, but has not provided police with information on how the child died.
“My husband was the maintenance man and he heard Riley being verbally abusive to Christian,” Wingard said.
Relatives claimed Christian would hurt other children, so they had to keep him apart.
“He never played outside, didn’t get to run and play with other children,” Wingard said.
Wingard said she reported potential abuse to the Indiana Division of Family and Children and watched a case worker talk to Kim Choate outside, then leave.
A spokesman for the agency declined to comment on the case.
When “Granny” died in September, 2009, Choate relatives claimed Christian had run away.
Wingard said she asked if they had been looking for him, but one family member said, “We stopped looking for him, we had Granny’s funeral to plan.”
Harold Fulkerson, who still lives in the mobile home park, said he and a friend searched the wooded area nearby after learning Christian was missing.
“If it was my family member, I want to know where he was at, you can’t just dismiss it,” Fulkerson said.
“He was just a kid. Thank God now it will come to closure,” Fulkerson said.
The impish grin in his school photo belies the life, and ultimate death, of Christian Choate.
He was 13 when he died, but small for his age.
Neighbors who knew him when he and his family lived at Colfax Mobile Home Park in the Black Oak section of Gary say that Christian was rarely allowed outside and missed a lot of school.
“They would have big birthday parties for the other kids, with cakes and everything, but Christian would be inside,” Lori Wingard of DeMotte said Thursday.
Wingard and her husband lived in Black Oak for a time and knew the Choate family.
She said Riley and Kimberly and “about 10” children lived in a two-bedroom trailer across the street from the woman who raised Kim and her sister.
Shortly before that woman died, the Choates moved “Granny” in with them and began improving Granny’s home, including a shed in the back yard.
It was under the shed’s concrete that police found Christian’s body Wednesday.
His father, Riley, 39, has admitted burying his son there, but has not provided police with information on how the child died.
“My husband was the maintenance man and he heard Riley being verbally abusive to Christian,” Wingard said.
Relatives claimed Christian would hurt other children, so they had to keep him apart.
“He never played outside, didn’t get to run and play with other children,” Wingard said.
Wingard said she reported potential abuse to the Indiana Division of Family and Children and watched a case worker talk to Kim Choate outside, then leave.
A spokesman for the agency declined to comment on the case.
When “Granny” died in September, 2009, Choate relatives claimed Christian had run away.
Wingard said she asked if they had been looking for him, but one family member said, “We stopped looking for him, we had Granny’s funeral to plan.”
Harold Fulkerson, who still lives in the mobile home park, said he and a friend searched the wooded area nearby after learning Christian was missing.
“If it was my family member, I want to know where he was at, you can’t just dismiss it,” Fulkerson said.
“He was just a kid. Thank God now it will come to closure,” Fulkerson said.
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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GARY | The Indiana Department of Child Services opened its assessment into Christian Choate after police found remains buried in Gary, officials said Thursday.
Police found the body, believed to be the 13-year-old boy, in a shallow grave Wednesday night in a mobile home park north of Ridge Road and Colfax Avenue in Gary. Authorities are awaiting the results of DNA testing to confirm his identity, but police said it appears the remains are Christian's.
"All signs point to the worst-case scenario," DCS spokeswoman Ann Houseworth said.
Houseworth said DCS did not have any open investigations into Christian's family prior to April 2009, which is when authorities believe the boy died.
It's unclear why no one reported Christian missing or dead until two years after his disappearance.
Riley Choate, Christian's father, was charged Thursday with felony removal of a body from a death scene and misdemeanor counts of failure to notify authorities of the discovery of a dead body and failure to report a dead body, Lake Criminal Court records show.
Kim Choate, Christian's stepmother, also is being questioned about Christian's death but has not been charged, police said. She is in custody for an unrelated warrant out of Kentucky.
Houseworth said Christian's siblings and other children involved in the case were taken into protective custody.
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GARY | The Indiana Department of Child Services opened its assessment into Christian Choate after police found remains buried in Gary, officials said Thursday.
Police found the body, believed to be the 13-year-old boy, in a shallow grave Wednesday night in a mobile home park north of Ridge Road and Colfax Avenue in Gary. Authorities are awaiting the results of DNA testing to confirm his identity, but police said it appears the remains are Christian's.
"All signs point to the worst-case scenario," DCS spokeswoman Ann Houseworth said.
Houseworth said DCS did not have any open investigations into Christian's family prior to April 2009, which is when authorities believe the boy died.
It's unclear why no one reported Christian missing or dead until two years after his disappearance.
Riley Choate, Christian's father, was charged Thursday with felony removal of a body from a death scene and misdemeanor counts of failure to notify authorities of the discovery of a dead body and failure to report a dead body, Lake Criminal Court records show.
Kim Choate, Christian's stepmother, also is being questioned about Christian's death but has not been charged, police said. She is in custody for an unrelated warrant out of Kentucky.
Houseworth said Christian's siblings and other children involved in the case were taken into protective custody.
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Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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GARY—Wrapped in a blanket and plastic garbage bags, 13-year-old Christian Choate’s broken body remained hidden under concrete for two years where police say his father and stepmother buried him after covering him with lime, then placing a Bible on his chest.
When Lake County crime lab technicians located the boy under about two feet of dirt at the Colfax Mobile Home Park Wednesday, they found everything as father Riley Choate described.
“It was a very gruesome scene,” Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said at a noon news conference Thursday.
Choate, 39, of 7209 Bertram St., Hammond, was arrested at his girlfriend’s home on a larceny warrant issued in Kentucky. He has been charged with removal of a body from a death scene, failure to notify authorities of the discovery of a dead body and failure to report a dead body, but Buncich said additional charges are expected after his investigators question other Choate relatives in Kentucky.
Choate led police to his son’s body Wednesday under a shed at the mobile home across the street from his family’s former home. at 5930 W. 36th Ave.
An autopsy completed Thursday shows Christopher died from “sustained blunt force trauma to his body with internal bleeding and a skull fracture,” court records state. His death has been ruled a homicide.
The boy’s mother, Aimee Eriks Estrada, who lives in Calumet Township, called 911 Sunday night and told Lake County police her daughter, Christine, recently told her about the death of her brother in early April, 2009.
Police began searching the area Monday, using cadaver dogs provided by the Chicago Police Department, but had no success until Choate agreed to cooperate.
Choate told police that after determining Christian was dead, he decided to bury the boy. “If I had it to over, I’d have just called. But I was freaking out,” he told police earlier this week. Buncich told reporters Choate did not admit responsibility for the boy’s death, then added, “Yet.”
Christine Choate, 17, told police she noticed her brother had become ill and had stopped eating, then later saw his was not breathing. Her stepmother, Kimberly Choate, told her to try to resuscitate him “but he was already deceased,” the probable cause affidavit states
The girl said she saw Riley and Kimberly Choate take the body out of their home, then return “covered in mud.”
Kimberly Choate is no longer with Riley Choate. Buncich said she was being held for questioning and also has a larceny warrant issued in Kentucky.
Christine and Christian Choate had been living with their father since July 2005. Estrada said she left Riley Choate about that time because he had been abusing her, but agreed to let him have custody of the children, court records state. She told police she had not seen either child in several years, Buncich reported.
Christian was never reported missing to any police agency, and shortly after he died, his family moved to Kentucky.
Buncich praised his investigators for an “excellent piece of police work.” He said that although the crime occurred within Gary city limits, “It’s in Lake County. I gave the order to initiate the investigation.”
Gary police said they had received a tip with less detailed information about a missing boy more than a week ago and were following leads when they learned from reporters that Lake County had uncovered a body.
“A lot of relatives are involved in this,” Buncich said. Investigators are in Kentucky taking statements and expect to return with additional information and possibly more suspects, he said.
Reach Lori Caldwell at 648-3258
GARY—Wrapped in a blanket and plastic garbage bags, 13-year-old Christian Choate’s broken body remained hidden under concrete for two years where police say his father and stepmother buried him after covering him with lime, then placing a Bible on his chest.
When Lake County crime lab technicians located the boy under about two feet of dirt at the Colfax Mobile Home Park Wednesday, they found everything as father Riley Choate described.
“It was a very gruesome scene,” Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said at a noon news conference Thursday.
Choate, 39, of 7209 Bertram St., Hammond, was arrested at his girlfriend’s home on a larceny warrant issued in Kentucky. He has been charged with removal of a body from a death scene, failure to notify authorities of the discovery of a dead body and failure to report a dead body, but Buncich said additional charges are expected after his investigators question other Choate relatives in Kentucky.
Choate led police to his son’s body Wednesday under a shed at the mobile home across the street from his family’s former home. at 5930 W. 36th Ave.
An autopsy completed Thursday shows Christopher died from “sustained blunt force trauma to his body with internal bleeding and a skull fracture,” court records state. His death has been ruled a homicide.
The boy’s mother, Aimee Eriks Estrada, who lives in Calumet Township, called 911 Sunday night and told Lake County police her daughter, Christine, recently told her about the death of her brother in early April, 2009.
Police began searching the area Monday, using cadaver dogs provided by the Chicago Police Department, but had no success until Choate agreed to cooperate.
Choate told police that after determining Christian was dead, he decided to bury the boy. “If I had it to over, I’d have just called. But I was freaking out,” he told police earlier this week. Buncich told reporters Choate did not admit responsibility for the boy’s death, then added, “Yet.”
Christine Choate, 17, told police she noticed her brother had become ill and had stopped eating, then later saw his was not breathing. Her stepmother, Kimberly Choate, told her to try to resuscitate him “but he was already deceased,” the probable cause affidavit states
The girl said she saw Riley and Kimberly Choate take the body out of their home, then return “covered in mud.”
Kimberly Choate is no longer with Riley Choate. Buncich said she was being held for questioning and also has a larceny warrant issued in Kentucky.
Christine and Christian Choate had been living with their father since July 2005. Estrada said she left Riley Choate about that time because he had been abusing her, but agreed to let him have custody of the children, court records state. She told police she had not seen either child in several years, Buncich reported.
Christian was never reported missing to any police agency, and shortly after he died, his family moved to Kentucky.
Buncich praised his investigators for an “excellent piece of police work.” He said that although the crime occurred within Gary city limits, “It’s in Lake County. I gave the order to initiate the investigation.”
Gary police said they had received a tip with less detailed information about a missing boy more than a week ago and were following leads when they learned from reporters that Lake County had uncovered a body.
“A lot of relatives are involved in this,” Buncich said. Investigators are in Kentucky taking statements and expect to return with additional information and possibly more suspects, he said.
Reach Lori Caldwell at 648-3258
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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The father of a 13-year-old Indiana boy found buried in a shallow grave was charged in his son's death Thursday after he admitted burying him there.
Riley Choate told police he wrapped his son, Christian Choate, in a blanket, placed a Bible on him and buried him under concrete in a mobile park home in Gary, Ind., in April 2009, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Choate, 28, was charged with removal of a body from a death scene, failing to notify authorities of a death and failure to report a body to authorities.
The child's former stepmother, Kim Choate, was being held on larceny warrants, the newspaper said.
The Sun-Times reported that an autopsy showed Christopher died from "sustained blunt force trauma to his body with internal bleeding and a skull fracture." His death has been ruled a homicide.
Authorities were shocked that no one noticed the child missing for so long.
"He just fell through the cracks, unfortunately," Lake County Sheriff John Buncich told the Chicago Tribune. "How can a child just disappear and no one follow up?"
Police said the investigation began when relatives told Christian's biological mother the boy had been buried in the mobile home park and called police.
She gave up custody of Christian and his sister six years ago because she didn't want to raise them, the Tribune said.
The boy was never reported missing. Neighbors told local television station WLS the Choate family moved away two years ago.
"He was a very good child and I mean, I feel very, very bad and upset over what happened to him," a family friend told WLS.
Choate had a criminal record of charges including battery, auto theft and harassment. He was arrested at his girlfriend's house, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The father of a 13-year-old Indiana boy found buried in a shallow grave was charged in his son's death Thursday after he admitted burying him there.
Riley Choate told police he wrapped his son, Christian Choate, in a blanket, placed a Bible on him and buried him under concrete in a mobile park home in Gary, Ind., in April 2009, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Choate, 28, was charged with removal of a body from a death scene, failing to notify authorities of a death and failure to report a body to authorities.
The child's former stepmother, Kim Choate, was being held on larceny warrants, the newspaper said.
The Sun-Times reported that an autopsy showed Christopher died from "sustained blunt force trauma to his body with internal bleeding and a skull fracture." His death has been ruled a homicide.
Authorities were shocked that no one noticed the child missing for so long.
"He just fell through the cracks, unfortunately," Lake County Sheriff John Buncich told the Chicago Tribune. "How can a child just disappear and no one follow up?"
Police said the investigation began when relatives told Christian's biological mother the boy had been buried in the mobile home park and called police.
She gave up custody of Christian and his sister six years ago because she didn't want to raise them, the Tribune said.
The boy was never reported missing. Neighbors told local television station WLS the Choate family moved away two years ago.
"He was a very good child and I mean, I feel very, very bad and upset over what happened to him," a family friend told WLS.
Choate had a criminal record of charges including battery, auto theft and harassment. He was arrested at his girlfriend's house, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Unless I missed it no one is confessing to beating him to death.
Guest- Guest
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
No I havent seen a confession as of yet. There are so many more articles out there that I havent read yet. I will try to post more tomorrow if I see anything that isnt mentioned in these. I did see where the shed was on the property of the Granny and they moved her in with them shortly after his death and fixed up her trailer and built the shed. The dad told neighbors that he ran away and he couldnt look for him because the Granny died and they had a funeral to plan. I dont understand why no one called LE, Why the mother didnt try to contact him in 6 years,and why the sister didnt tell of his death for 2 years?
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
That poor little boy, no one wanted him and his bio Dad (probably) killed him even thou' he hasn't admitted it yet. Bio Mom didn't want her own children so these kids had to live w/ bio Dad and look at what happened. DCS failed him, they came out but didn't go inside - figures, I have no more faith in DCS no matter what state they're in. Heads need to roll over this.
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
The body of a 13-year-old boy, who was buried in a shallow grave and covered with concrete allegedly by his father has been unearthed by authorities.
Christian Choate, from Gary, Indiana, died in the spring of 2009 but unbelievably was not missed until Sunday night when his biological mother raised the alarm.
The mother told Lake County police she had found out from relatives that her son was buried in the Black Oak mobile home park in Gary.
She had handed Christian and a sister over to their biological father, Riley Lowell Choate, in 2005 because she didn't want to raise them, she added.
Choate, 39, who has a criminal history that includes battery, harassment and car theft, has so far been charged with the removal of a body from a death scene, failure to notify authorities of a death and failure to report a body to authorities.
Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said the charges were likely to be increased if an autopsy ruled the boy was murdered.
The initial results showed Christian suffered a 'blunt force trauma to his body with internal bleeding and a skull fracture,' according to court records.
Choate’s wife and Christian's stepmother is also in custody, Sheriff Buncich said, after the boy's sister told police she had helped Choate bury the boy.
Christian's sister, who has not been named, told police she had discovered her brother's lifeless body at their home in 2009, according to the Chicago Tribune.
She ran to her stepmother and was told to try to revive him. It didn't work. Christian was dead.
Charged: Riley Lowell Choate admitted burying his son's body in 2009 telling police if he had to do it over, he would have just called them but had been 'freaking out'
She then allegedly watched her father and stepmother wrap Christian's body in two plastic garbage bags, place him in a plastic bin and drive off with him in their van, Sheriff Buncich said.
The couple then returned covered in mud. The stepmother told the girl they had covered Christian 'in concrete so he couldn't get out,' according to authorities.
'This is a human being that just disappeared off the face of this earth,' Sheriff Buncich said in a news conference today.
'Someone should have said something. When it's a child, it just hits home. To be thrown away and buried like trash. No one should have that fate,' he added.
He also admitted that if the sheriff's office had never been tipped off, Christian may never have been found.
Scene: It was Christian's biological mother who had alerted police to the location of her son's body in the Black Oak mobile home park in Gary, Indiana
'He just fell through the cracks, unfortunately,' the sheriff said. 'How can a child just disappear and no one follow up?'
Police started to search for Christian on Monday using cadaver dogs, but found nothing.
On Wednesday, after questioning several family members, they caught up with Choate, the boy's father, who was taken in for questioning.
Choate admitted burying Christian in April 2009, Sheriff Buncich said.
He had told police: 'If I had to do it over, I'd have just called (police). But I was freaking out,' according to authorities.
However Choate claimed that it had been his daughter, not his wife, who had helped him bury Christian.
Christian's sister, now 17, is thought to have fled to Kentucky to live with other relatives after her brother disappeared, her relatives told the Chicago Tribune.
Choate then took police to the exact spot where he had buried the boy, saying he had wrapped his body in a blanket, put a bible on his chest and buried him. He then covered the grave with concrete, authorities said.
They then found Christian's badly decomposed body buried around two feet underground.
Choate had told neighbours Christian had run away, but he had not reported him missing, the sheriff said.
Alyssa Nieto, 18, who told the Tribune she was Christian's half-sister, said she couldn't understand why Choate had been given custody of the children in the first place.
'He's a convicted felon and he got custody. How could they give kids to a murderer? I'm happy he's arrested. He should be put away,' she said.
The other children who had been living with Choate and his wife have been taken into custody by the Indiana Department of Child Services.
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Christian Choate, from Gary, Indiana, died in the spring of 2009 but unbelievably was not missed until Sunday night when his biological mother raised the alarm.
The mother told Lake County police she had found out from relatives that her son was buried in the Black Oak mobile home park in Gary.
She had handed Christian and a sister over to their biological father, Riley Lowell Choate, in 2005 because she didn't want to raise them, she added.
Choate, 39, who has a criminal history that includes battery, harassment and car theft, has so far been charged with the removal of a body from a death scene, failure to notify authorities of a death and failure to report a body to authorities.
Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said the charges were likely to be increased if an autopsy ruled the boy was murdered.
The initial results showed Christian suffered a 'blunt force trauma to his body with internal bleeding and a skull fracture,' according to court records.
Choate’s wife and Christian's stepmother is also in custody, Sheriff Buncich said, after the boy's sister told police she had helped Choate bury the boy.
Christian's sister, who has not been named, told police she had discovered her brother's lifeless body at their home in 2009, according to the Chicago Tribune.
She ran to her stepmother and was told to try to revive him. It didn't work. Christian was dead.
Charged: Riley Lowell Choate admitted burying his son's body in 2009 telling police if he had to do it over, he would have just called them but had been 'freaking out'
She then allegedly watched her father and stepmother wrap Christian's body in two plastic garbage bags, place him in a plastic bin and drive off with him in their van, Sheriff Buncich said.
The couple then returned covered in mud. The stepmother told the girl they had covered Christian 'in concrete so he couldn't get out,' according to authorities.
'This is a human being that just disappeared off the face of this earth,' Sheriff Buncich said in a news conference today.
'Someone should have said something. When it's a child, it just hits home. To be thrown away and buried like trash. No one should have that fate,' he added.
He also admitted that if the sheriff's office had never been tipped off, Christian may never have been found.
Scene: It was Christian's biological mother who had alerted police to the location of her son's body in the Black Oak mobile home park in Gary, Indiana
'He just fell through the cracks, unfortunately,' the sheriff said. 'How can a child just disappear and no one follow up?'
Police started to search for Christian on Monday using cadaver dogs, but found nothing.
On Wednesday, after questioning several family members, they caught up with Choate, the boy's father, who was taken in for questioning.
Choate admitted burying Christian in April 2009, Sheriff Buncich said.
He had told police: 'If I had to do it over, I'd have just called (police). But I was freaking out,' according to authorities.
However Choate claimed that it had been his daughter, not his wife, who had helped him bury Christian.
Christian's sister, now 17, is thought to have fled to Kentucky to live with other relatives after her brother disappeared, her relatives told the Chicago Tribune.
Choate then took police to the exact spot where he had buried the boy, saying he had wrapped his body in a blanket, put a bible on his chest and buried him. He then covered the grave with concrete, authorities said.
They then found Christian's badly decomposed body buried around two feet underground.
Choate had told neighbours Christian had run away, but he had not reported him missing, the sheriff said.
Alyssa Nieto, 18, who told the Tribune she was Christian's half-sister, said she couldn't understand why Choate had been given custody of the children in the first place.
'He's a convicted felon and he got custody. How could they give kids to a murderer? I'm happy he's arrested. He should be put away,' she said.
The other children who had been living with Choate and his wife have been taken into custody by the Indiana Department of Child Services.
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Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
about his sister helping to bury the body. He made that up to get even with her for spilling the beans.
Guest- Guest
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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The biological mother of a 12-year-old boy
whose body was found in a cement grave this week assumed her son was
alive. The woman's current husband said the boy was believed to be
living in Indiana with his father or in Kentucky with his sister.
The current husband, who preferred
to remain unidentified, said the mother is "very emotional" and had
"nothing" to do with the death of Christian Choate.
Lake County, Ind., deputies on
Wednesday uncovered the body of the teen in Gary behind his deceased
grandmother's mobile home. He was buried in a shallow grave under
concrete and lime, wrapped in plastic and a blanket.
Choate's father, 39-year-old Riley
Choate, was charged Thursday with covering up the death, including
removal of a body from a death scene, failure to notify about a body at a
death scene and failure to report discovery of a body. Authorities said
he has an "extensive" criminal record, including battery and harassment
convictions.
Riley Choate was arrested earlier
this week and brought in for questioning regarding an outstanding
larceny warrant in Kentucky. During questioning, authorities said Choate
broke down.
It was Choate who led investigators
to where his son's body was buried. Cadaver dogs had no luck finding a
scent of the body, but the grave was finally exposed after a difficult
excavation of the concrete under a backyard shed.
The boy was never officially
reported missing three years ago, investigators said. Instead, Riley
Choate just told neighbors and relatives at the time that the boy "ran
away."
The boy's biological mother six
years ago had given up custody of him and his now 17-year-old sister.
The mother on Sunday night called 911 to report information given to her
from relatives in Hopkinsville, Ky., where the biological sister now
lives, that her son had been murdered and buried in the yard, officials
said.
Riley Choate's live-in girlfriend
at the time of the boy's death, 45-year-old Kimberly Choate, is in
custody in Kentucky on an outstanding theft warrant in that state. Lake
County detectives are en route to Hopkinsville for "futher
investigation," including questioning the boy's sister.
Sheriff John Buncich called the
discovery of the body "gruesome," and he said the crime would never have
been solved without the tip.
Riley Choate denied he killed his son but admitted to burying him with a Bible on his chest, investigators said.
The biological mother of a 12-year-old boy
whose body was found in a cement grave this week assumed her son was
alive. The woman's current husband said the boy was believed to be
living in Indiana with his father or in Kentucky with his sister.
The current husband, who preferred
to remain unidentified, said the mother is "very emotional" and had
"nothing" to do with the death of Christian Choate.
Lake County, Ind., deputies on
Wednesday uncovered the body of the teen in Gary behind his deceased
grandmother's mobile home. He was buried in a shallow grave under
concrete and lime, wrapped in plastic and a blanket.
Choate's father, 39-year-old Riley
Choate, was charged Thursday with covering up the death, including
removal of a body from a death scene, failure to notify about a body at a
death scene and failure to report discovery of a body. Authorities said
he has an "extensive" criminal record, including battery and harassment
convictions.
Riley Choate was arrested earlier
this week and brought in for questioning regarding an outstanding
larceny warrant in Kentucky. During questioning, authorities said Choate
broke down.
It was Choate who led investigators
to where his son's body was buried. Cadaver dogs had no luck finding a
scent of the body, but the grave was finally exposed after a difficult
excavation of the concrete under a backyard shed.
The boy was never officially
reported missing three years ago, investigators said. Instead, Riley
Choate just told neighbors and relatives at the time that the boy "ran
away."
The boy's biological mother six
years ago had given up custody of him and his now 17-year-old sister.
The mother on Sunday night called 911 to report information given to her
from relatives in Hopkinsville, Ky., where the biological sister now
lives, that her son had been murdered and buried in the yard, officials
said.
Riley Choate's live-in girlfriend
at the time of the boy's death, 45-year-old Kimberly Choate, is in
custody in Kentucky on an outstanding theft warrant in that state. Lake
County detectives are en route to Hopkinsville for "futher
investigation," including questioning the boy's sister.
Sheriff John Buncich called the
discovery of the body "gruesome," and he said the crime would never have
been solved without the tip.
Riley Choate denied he killed his son but admitted to burying him with a Bible on his chest, investigators said.
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Everytime I read he was buried w/a bible on his chest, my bp goes through the roof! What a nice parting thought!
Wow, this family is messed up. Bio mom gives up custody to a convicted felon (& I still want to know just HOW he got custody) because "she didn't want them". She has no clue about Christian. The sister says she witnessed her father burying her brother but did not report it for 2 years, and the step mom is in jail in another state on a warrant.
Lovely family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, this family is messed up. Bio mom gives up custody to a convicted felon (& I still want to know just HOW he got custody) because "she didn't want them". She has no clue about Christian. The sister says she witnessed her father burying her brother but did not report it for 2 years, and the step mom is in jail in another state on a warrant.
Lovely family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last edited by Wrapitup on Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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Murder charges have been filed against the father and stepmother of a 13-year-old boy who died two years ago but whose body was unearthered from a shallow grave in Gary just last week.
Riley Lowell Choate, 39, and Kimberly Leona Kubina, 45, are accused of keeping Christian Choate in a dog cage with seven locks for more than a year before he died in April of 2009. They are both charged with murder, battery, neglect and criminal confinement.
An affidavit filed with the charges details how the boy was regularly abused and how the couple forced his older sister, 15 at the time, to feed him, take him to the bathroom and see that he did exercises.
In at least one instance, Christian was taken out of his cage and the sister was forced to chain his hands and feet to a bedframe "while striking him and choking him once until he turned blue," the office said in the affidavit. The sister videotaped the episode at Kubina's direction, but authorities said Kubina later recorded over it.
On April 4, 2009, the day before the boy's death, Christian would not eat and Choate "became enraged and punched him with full force several times in the front, side and back of his head before throwing him back in the cage," according to the affidavit.
Christian's sister was told to check on the boy every five minutes afterwards "or (Choate) would do the same thing to her," the office said.
The next day, the sister noticed Christian was not breathing and tried to revive him with a mattress pump, the office said.
The girl then watched her father and stepmother wrap Christian in two plastic bags, place his body in a plastic tote and load him in the back of a van and drive off, court records show. Later, the girl’s stepmother said they buried Christian and covered him in concrete so he couldn’t get out, the girl told detectives.
And there Christian’s body lay, wrapped in a blanket with a Bible on his chest, for two years, the Lake County Sheriff said.
An autopsy showed the boy had suffered “blunt force trauma to his body with internal bleeding and a skull fracture,” according to court records. He had been missing, unnoticed, for two years, authorities said.
Lake County sheriff’s police began investigating the boy's death last week after receiving a tip from the boy’s estranged biological mother.
According to records, the sheriff’s office received a call from Christian’s mother, saying her 17-year-old daughter in Kentucky relayed some concerning information about her son. Detectives called the girl in Kentucky and interviewed her by phone.
According to police, Christian’s mother relinquished custody of the boy and his sister to their biological father in July 2005.
Christian's older sister told authorities that she believed the boy was kept in the cage so he wouldn't run away and tell his biological mom about the abuse.
Murder charges have been filed against the father and stepmother of a 13-year-old boy who died two years ago but whose body was unearthered from a shallow grave in Gary just last week.
Riley Lowell Choate, 39, and Kimberly Leona Kubina, 45, are accused of keeping Christian Choate in a dog cage with seven locks for more than a year before he died in April of 2009. They are both charged with murder, battery, neglect and criminal confinement.
An affidavit filed with the charges details how the boy was regularly abused and how the couple forced his older sister, 15 at the time, to feed him, take him to the bathroom and see that he did exercises.
In at least one instance, Christian was taken out of his cage and the sister was forced to chain his hands and feet to a bedframe "while striking him and choking him once until he turned blue," the office said in the affidavit. The sister videotaped the episode at Kubina's direction, but authorities said Kubina later recorded over it.
On April 4, 2009, the day before the boy's death, Christian would not eat and Choate "became enraged and punched him with full force several times in the front, side and back of his head before throwing him back in the cage," according to the affidavit.
Christian's sister was told to check on the boy every five minutes afterwards "or (Choate) would do the same thing to her," the office said.
The next day, the sister noticed Christian was not breathing and tried to revive him with a mattress pump, the office said.
The girl then watched her father and stepmother wrap Christian in two plastic bags, place his body in a plastic tote and load him in the back of a van and drive off, court records show. Later, the girl’s stepmother said they buried Christian and covered him in concrete so he couldn’t get out, the girl told detectives.
And there Christian’s body lay, wrapped in a blanket with a Bible on his chest, for two years, the Lake County Sheriff said.
An autopsy showed the boy had suffered “blunt force trauma to his body with internal bleeding and a skull fracture,” according to court records. He had been missing, unnoticed, for two years, authorities said.
Lake County sheriff’s police began investigating the boy's death last week after receiving a tip from the boy’s estranged biological mother.
According to records, the sheriff’s office received a call from Christian’s mother, saying her 17-year-old daughter in Kentucky relayed some concerning information about her son. Detectives called the girl in Kentucky and interviewed her by phone.
According to police, Christian’s mother relinquished custody of the boy and his sister to their biological father in July 2005.
Christian's older sister told authorities that she believed the boy was kept in the cage so he wouldn't run away and tell his biological mom about the abuse.
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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Lori Wingard had no idea the dog cage she sold to her neighbor more than three years ago could have been used to confine a boy.
When she read a story Monday night about the cage Christian Choate had been locked in for more than a year, her heart sank. She knew it was the cage she once owned that contained her Alaskan malamute puppy.
She sold to cage to Choate's stepmother, Kimberly Choate, for $15.
Lori Wingard had no idea the dog cage she sold to her neighbor more than three years ago could have been used to confine a boy.
When she read a story Monday night about the cage Christian Choate had been locked in for more than a year, her heart sank. She knew it was the cage she once owned that contained her Alaskan malamute puppy.
She sold to cage to Choate's stepmother, Kimberly Choate, for $15.
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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Eight other people lived in the trailer with Christian Choate when he was confined to a cage for more than a year before his death.
Six of them were juveniles and two were adults. Christina Choate, Christian's sister, can remember the hatred that was aimed at her brother from all the other family members living in the trailer.
"Everyone hated him," she said.
Lake County prosecutors have charged Riley Choate, 39, with murder, battery, two counts of neglect of a dependent and criminal confinement in the death of his 13-year-old son, who officials say was caged and constantly beaten by his family.
Choate's wife, Kimberly, 45, faces the same charges. Kimberly Choate also is known as Kimberly Kubina and Kimberly Kubina-Choate.
Several of the children have been taken into protective custody, according to the person who Christina Choate indicated is her guardian. That person also gave her permission to speak Tuesday with The Times.
The 10-page charging document depicts wide-ranging abuse of Riley Choate's biological son, Christian, for several years prior to the boy's death in April 2009.
The body believed to be that of Christian Choate was retrieved May 4 from a shallow grave in a mobile home park in the Black Oak section of Gary.
Positive identification may take weeks, but Riley Choate told police he moved the boy's body from the mobile home where he died to a shed where his body was sprinkled with lime to aid decomposition and covered with concrete.
Threat, abuse allegations
Charging documents state Christina, then 15, believed Christian was kept in a cage because their father didn't want the boy to tell their biological mother of the abuse.
Choate and his wife also withdrew Christian from school as the beatings turned more brutal, Christina said.
"They didn't want him telling the school (that he was getting hit) so they took him out," she said.
Christian is alleged to have run away frequently, attempting to make contact with his mother, Aimee Estrada, of Gary. Christina said she also longed to see her mother but never said anything out of fear of being struck or kicked by her father and his steel-toed boots.
"He made threats to me saying I wouldn't live until my 18th birthday," she said.
Christina Choate told police their father and stepmother regularly abused her brother beginning when the family, which included minor children of Kimberly Choate, lived in Merrillville.
While in Merrillville, Christian was kept locked in a basement, Christina told police.
Christina reports her brother as being in good health when he first joined the family in Merrillville.
After the family moved to a Black Oak mobile home park, Riley Choate kept the boy in a dog cage secured with seven locks. The boy lived in the cage every day for more than a year before his death, Christina said.
The cage was kept in a front bedroom Christian shared with his father while Kimberly slept on a living room couch and her children and Christina slept in a back bedroom.
Christina told authorities she was the sole person responsible for caring for Christian. Her duties included feeding him, taking him to the bathroom, forcing him to exercise and physically punishing him for failing to take orders.
She often was instructed to hit her brother, she said.
MUCH MORE AT LINK
Eight other people lived in the trailer with Christian Choate when he was confined to a cage for more than a year before his death.
Six of them were juveniles and two were adults. Christina Choate, Christian's sister, can remember the hatred that was aimed at her brother from all the other family members living in the trailer.
"Everyone hated him," she said.
Lake County prosecutors have charged Riley Choate, 39, with murder, battery, two counts of neglect of a dependent and criminal confinement in the death of his 13-year-old son, who officials say was caged and constantly beaten by his family.
Choate's wife, Kimberly, 45, faces the same charges. Kimberly Choate also is known as Kimberly Kubina and Kimberly Kubina-Choate.
Several of the children have been taken into protective custody, according to the person who Christina Choate indicated is her guardian. That person also gave her permission to speak Tuesday with The Times.
The 10-page charging document depicts wide-ranging abuse of Riley Choate's biological son, Christian, for several years prior to the boy's death in April 2009.
The body believed to be that of Christian Choate was retrieved May 4 from a shallow grave in a mobile home park in the Black Oak section of Gary.
Positive identification may take weeks, but Riley Choate told police he moved the boy's body from the mobile home where he died to a shed where his body was sprinkled with lime to aid decomposition and covered with concrete.
Threat, abuse allegations
Charging documents state Christina, then 15, believed Christian was kept in a cage because their father didn't want the boy to tell their biological mother of the abuse.
Choate and his wife also withdrew Christian from school as the beatings turned more brutal, Christina said.
"They didn't want him telling the school (that he was getting hit) so they took him out," she said.
Christian is alleged to have run away frequently, attempting to make contact with his mother, Aimee Estrada, of Gary. Christina said she also longed to see her mother but never said anything out of fear of being struck or kicked by her father and his steel-toed boots.
"He made threats to me saying I wouldn't live until my 18th birthday," she said.
Christina Choate told police their father and stepmother regularly abused her brother beginning when the family, which included minor children of Kimberly Choate, lived in Merrillville.
While in Merrillville, Christian was kept locked in a basement, Christina told police.
Christina reports her brother as being in good health when he first joined the family in Merrillville.
After the family moved to a Black Oak mobile home park, Riley Choate kept the boy in a dog cage secured with seven locks. The boy lived in the cage every day for more than a year before his death, Christina said.
The cage was kept in a front bedroom Christian shared with his father while Kimberly slept on a living room couch and her children and Christina slept in a back bedroom.
Christina told authorities she was the sole person responsible for caring for Christian. Her duties included feeding him, taking him to the bathroom, forcing him to exercise and physically punishing him for failing to take orders.
She often was instructed to hit her brother, she said.
MUCH MORE AT LINK
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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Riley Lowell Choate (left), 39, and Kimberly Leona Kubina (center), are accused of keeping Christian Choate (right) in a dog cage with seven locks for more than a year before he died in April of 2009. His body was unearthered from a shallow grave in Gary last week. (Lake County Sheriff photos)
Riley Lowell Choate (left), 39, and Kimberly Leona Kubina (center), are accused of keeping Christian Choate (right) in a dog cage with seven locks for more than a year before he died in April of 2009. His body was unearthered from a shallow grave in Gary last week. (Lake County Sheriff photos)
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Those two need to be stoned to death.
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
I don't see how this sister can live with the memories of what she was forced to do to her brother...
Christina Choate, Christian's sister, can remember the hatred that was aimed at her brother from all the other family members living in the trailer.
"Everyone hated him," she said.
lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Im torn about my thoughts on this sister. I do feel bad for her for what she went through. On the other hand if she did hit him with a metal pipe and choke him till he turned blue there is a good chance she helped contribute to his death or possibly even caused it. Im thinking she should be arrested also. I understand she feared for her life but at 15 she knew right from wrong.
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
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Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Sly, this is a difficult one for me. I think it is probably an individual thing, I don't think I could just hold a child responsible for something like this with little knowledge (hope I'm making sense). I'm assuming this girl had a rotten life too. Her own Mother didn't seek custody of her and Christian because she said she didn't want to raise them. This bio Dad is a monster and if this girl was horribly abused by this Dad and I'm assuming she was, she probably was in great fear of him and who knows what she would have done if he ordered her to do it. I'm glad she finally told her bio Mom about Christian being dead and buried but I wonder what her relationship is with bio Mom.Slys Hunny wrote:Im torn about my thoughts on this sister. I do feel bad for her for what she went through. On the other hand if she did hit him with a metal pipe and choke him till he turned blue there is a good chance she helped contribute to his death or possibly even caused it. Im thinking she should be arrested also. I understand she feared for her life but at 15 she knew right from wrong.
This girl at the very least needs a great deal of therapy so that she has some kind of 'normal' life and doesn't repeat history. But who knows what's going to come out in the coming weeks/months we all might change our thoughts.
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Christian Choate Died, Locked in Cage, Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him
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GARY, Indiana -- By the time 13-year-old Christian Choate was allegedly beaten to death and buried in a shallow grave in a Gary, Ind., trailer park in 2009, his family had been getting semiregular visits from child welfare authorities for more than 10 years.
The Indiana Department of Child Services' inch-thick case file on the Choate family details more than a dozen investigations of allegations of abuse or neglect dating to 1999. In 2009, Indiana prosecutors say, Christian died after years of abuse, finally succumbing to head injuries caused by blows from his father and older sister.
Christian's father, Riley Choate, and stepmother, Kimberly Kubina, were charged with murder in May after the older sister, now 17, told authorities about the boy's death.
Reports released by juvenile court officials Friday provide a portrait of the boy's short, terrifying life and of missed opportunities to stop the alleged abuse.
Less than a year before he died, DCS records state an investigator interviewed the boy, his parents and siblings in response to a neighbor reporting Christian was kept under "house arrest."
Prosecutors allege Christian endured beatings daily and was kept locked in a 3-foot-high dog cage, where he had little to eat and often soiled himself. The DCS report, dated June 2008, says there was no evidence of neglect.
"We followed all state laws all policies and procedures, and we'll continue assessing this fatality," DCS spokeswoman Anne Houseworth said Friday.
The abuse in Christian's case was exceptional, Houseworth said Friday, but DCS staff did follow agency protocols and performed a thorough investigation of the allegations.
"If we don't see evidence of abuse, and no one admits anything is going on, there is nothing for us to do," Houseworth said.
Also included in the reports are medical records that show Christian made numerous visits to a pediatrician from 2007 to 2008. Notes on the report show his weight dropping consistently, and he told his doctor he was "hit with the door in his bedroom" two days before a February 2007 visit.
A month later, handwritten notes from the doctor state Christian complained of being "very angry all the time."
A March 2008 note reads, "He's locked up at night."
The doctor did not report any abuse to authorities, Houseworth said.
School officials lost track of the boy in 2007, after Kubina informed district officials the boy would be home-schooled. DCS investigators reviewed some of Christian's "assignments" from Kubina, and it appears the boy took the opportunity to express his thoughts and feelings at the time.
"Christian's writings detail a very sad, depressed child who often wondered when someone, anyone, was going to come check on him," the report states. "(He) wrote of why nobody liked him and how he just wanted to be liked by his family ... how isolated and sad Christian was on a daily basis."
GARY, Indiana -- By the time 13-year-old Christian Choate was allegedly beaten to death and buried in a shallow grave in a Gary, Ind., trailer park in 2009, his family had been getting semiregular visits from child welfare authorities for more than 10 years.
The Indiana Department of Child Services' inch-thick case file on the Choate family details more than a dozen investigations of allegations of abuse or neglect dating to 1999. In 2009, Indiana prosecutors say, Christian died after years of abuse, finally succumbing to head injuries caused by blows from his father and older sister.
Christian's father, Riley Choate, and stepmother, Kimberly Kubina, were charged with murder in May after the older sister, now 17, told authorities about the boy's death.
Reports released by juvenile court officials Friday provide a portrait of the boy's short, terrifying life and of missed opportunities to stop the alleged abuse.
Less than a year before he died, DCS records state an investigator interviewed the boy, his parents and siblings in response to a neighbor reporting Christian was kept under "house arrest."
Prosecutors allege Christian endured beatings daily and was kept locked in a 3-foot-high dog cage, where he had little to eat and often soiled himself. The DCS report, dated June 2008, says there was no evidence of neglect.
"We followed all state laws all policies and procedures, and we'll continue assessing this fatality," DCS spokeswoman Anne Houseworth said Friday.
The abuse in Christian's case was exceptional, Houseworth said Friday, but DCS staff did follow agency protocols and performed a thorough investigation of the allegations.
"If we don't see evidence of abuse, and no one admits anything is going on, there is nothing for us to do," Houseworth said.
Also included in the reports are medical records that show Christian made numerous visits to a pediatrician from 2007 to 2008. Notes on the report show his weight dropping consistently, and he told his doctor he was "hit with the door in his bedroom" two days before a February 2007 visit.
A month later, handwritten notes from the doctor state Christian complained of being "very angry all the time."
A March 2008 note reads, "He's locked up at night."
The doctor did not report any abuse to authorities, Houseworth said.
School officials lost track of the boy in 2007, after Kubina informed district officials the boy would be home-schooled. DCS investigators reviewed some of Christian's "assignments" from Kubina, and it appears the boy took the opportunity to express his thoughts and feelings at the time.
"Christian's writings detail a very sad, depressed child who often wondered when someone, anyone, was going to come check on him," the report states. "(He) wrote of why nobody liked him and how he just wanted to be liked by his family ... how isolated and sad Christian was on a daily basis."
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
CarlysMommy wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
GARY, Indiana -- By the time 13-year-old Christian Choate was allegedly beaten to death and buried in a shallow grave in a Gary, Ind., trailer park in 2009, his family had been getting semiregular visits from child welfare authorities for more than 10 years.
The Indiana Department of Child Services' inch-thick case file on the Choate family details more than a dozen investigations of allegations of abuse or neglect dating to 1999. In 2009, Indiana prosecutors say, Christian died after years of abuse, finally succumbing to head injuries caused by blows from his father and older sister.
Christian's father, Riley Choate, and stepmother, Kimberly Kubina, were charged with murder in May after the older sister, now 17, told authorities about the boy's death.
Reports released by juvenile court officials Friday provide a portrait of the boy's short, terrifying life and of missed opportunities to stop the alleged abuse.
Less than a year before he died, DCS records state an investigator interviewed the boy, his parents and siblings in response to a neighbor reporting Christian was kept under "house arrest."
Prosecutors allege Christian endured beatings daily and was kept locked in a 3-foot-high dog cage, where he had little to eat and often soiled himself. The DCS report, dated June 2008, says there was no evidence of neglect.
"We followed all state laws all policies and procedures, and we'll continue assessing this fatality," DCS spokeswoman Anne Houseworth said Friday.
The abuse in Christian's case was exceptional, Houseworth said Friday, but DCS staff did follow agency protocols and performed a thorough investigation of the allegations.
"If we don't see evidence of abuse, and no one admits anything is going on, there is nothing for us to do," Houseworth said.
Also included in the reports are medical records that show Christian made numerous visits to a pediatrician from 2007 to 2008. Notes on the report show his weight dropping consistently, and he told his doctor he was "hit with the door in his bedroom" two days before a February 2007 visit.
A month later, handwritten notes from the doctor state Christian complained of being "very angry all the time."
A March 2008 note reads, "He's locked up at night."
The doctor did not report any abuse to authorities, Houseworth said.
School officials lost track of the boy in 2007, after Kubina informed district officials the boy would be home-schooled. DCS investigators reviewed some of Christian's "assignments" from Kubina, and it appears the boy took the opportunity to express his thoughts and feelings at the time.
[b]"Christian's writings detail a very sad, depressed child who often wondered when someone, anyone, was going to come check on him," the report states. "(He) wrote of why nobody liked him and how he just wanted to be liked by his family ... how isolated and sad Christian was on a daily basis."
DCS failed this child! IF DCS really did follow all state laws and procedures and their hands were tied, then the laws and procedures should be under review right now, there's no excuse if they're not because DCS knows this child is dead because the system failed.
The Pediatrician failed this child also and why didn't he/she report this case to CDS? All of these Dr's are obligated to pass their concerns along to DCS and this Dr needs to be questioned in depth at the very least.
The school lost track of Christian in 2007 because the step monster informed the school he would be home schooled, OMG these parents should have to go thru' a process prior to their child being allowed to be taught at home! Schools in every school district nationwide need to be more strict with these parents and if they are approved for home schooling they still need to be in communication with the schools. Too many children are being lost and found dead and there seems to be no accountability from all of these agencies.
I feel so bad for Christian, he sounds like he was crying out for someone to find him and love him but no one did. How many more children are going to die because agencies fail them.......
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
if this story makes you sick to your stomach and you would like to ensure another child does not suffer because of the system failing please sign...
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ozziethedawg- Join date : 2011-07-18
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
I signed the petition. Thank you for letting us know about it.
Guest- Guest
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
OMG! And this continues to go on. They all failed him...even his Dr.
You know this really makes me not care for home-schooling. There are no checks and balances.
You know this really makes me not care for home-schooling. There are no checks and balances.
cherylz- Join date : 2009-05-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Slys Hunny wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
May 5, 2011 (GARY, Ind.) (WLS) -- A man has been charged in connection with his 13-year-old son's death two years ago.
Police found the badly composed body of Christian Choate buried beneath a storage shed and encased in concrete in a mobile home park in unincorporated Gary, Indiana on Wednesday.
Investigators have charged Riley Choate, 39, with moving a body from a death scene, altering a body and failure to report a body. He has not been charged with murder.
Related Content
Story: Boy's body found in Gary mobile home park
"He thus far confessed to removing the body from one trailer, taking it across the street and burying the body," said Lake County Sheriff John Buncich. "Wrapped him in a blanket in plastic and buried him in a shallow grave underneath the shed and then put concrete on top of the body. He also indicated at the time that he put a Bible on the boy's chest."
According to Buncich, the boy's mother called 911 Sunday after she received the information from someone in Kentucky. The sheriff says the mother lost custody of the boy and his sister and had not seen them for six years.
charminglane- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Stepmom pleads guilty in death of Indiana boy, 13
May 03, 2012
The stepmother of a Gary, Ind., boy who died after enduring daily beatings and being kept in a small cage for nearly two years has entered a plea deal with Lake County, Ind., prosecutors and will testify against her former husband in his murder trial in August.
Prosecutors have agreed to drop a charge of murder and 10 other felony counts filed against Kimberly Kubina last year after the body of her 13-year-old step son, Christian Choate, was discovered buried in a Gary trailer park in 2011.
The body was found days after Christian’s older sister told authorities that two years earlier, the boy had died after he was struck in the head by his father Riley Choate.
The family had moved to Kentucky, and Christian’s older sister, who also told authorities she beat and helped confine Christian — and was beaten and sexually abused by Choate herself — confessed to a relative in 2011, relating a gruesome tale of years of abuse that began when Christian was 11.
Kubina, 46, now faces only a single count of neglect of a dependent, and has agreed to take the stand against Choate, whom she divorced from jail in December. Kubina faces a sentence of 25 to 35 years on the remaining charge, according to the plea agreement.
Choate, 39, is set to go to trial on murder charges Aug. 14. Lake County Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell has placed a gag order on attorneys in the case.
Some potential details of Kubina’s possible testimony are revealed in a stipulation of facts filed with the plea agreement.
Kubina told authorities she began home-schooling Christian in 2007, when the family lived in Merrillville, because Choate had began beating the boy daily and she was concerned that school officials would notice Christian’s bruises and report the family to the Department of Child Services.
At the time, Kubina and Choate had nine children living with them, and Kubina feared all of them would be taken into protective custody if authorities investigated the abuse, the agreement states.
The beatings began after Riley walked in on Choate and his younger stepbrother in a bedroom at the house, the document states, and the two boys were wearing no pants. Christian, the document states, had told the younger boy that “to be brothers, (he) had to play the ‘hump game’ with Christian Choate.”
Christian thereafter was confined to his room in the basement of the Merrillville home, allowed to leave only to eat and use the bathroom, Kubina told authorities. Kubina said the boy was confined there even after they noticed he was relieving himself in the basement.
When the family moved to the rundown trailer park in Gary’s Black Oak neighborhood where Kubina’s mother and sister lived, Christian was confined first to their trailer’s bathroom, then to a bedroom the boy shared with Choate, according to Kubina.
In late 2008, Christian escaped from the trailer. When Kubina and one of her nieces found the boy at a nearby Walgreens, Choate beat him and thereafter kept the boy in a dog cage, the plea agreement states. Christian’s older sister was assigned to feed and care for him.
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May 03, 2012
The stepmother of a Gary, Ind., boy who died after enduring daily beatings and being kept in a small cage for nearly two years has entered a plea deal with Lake County, Ind., prosecutors and will testify against her former husband in his murder trial in August.
Prosecutors have agreed to drop a charge of murder and 10 other felony counts filed against Kimberly Kubina last year after the body of her 13-year-old step son, Christian Choate, was discovered buried in a Gary trailer park in 2011.
The body was found days after Christian’s older sister told authorities that two years earlier, the boy had died after he was struck in the head by his father Riley Choate.
The family had moved to Kentucky, and Christian’s older sister, who also told authorities she beat and helped confine Christian — and was beaten and sexually abused by Choate herself — confessed to a relative in 2011, relating a gruesome tale of years of abuse that began when Christian was 11.
Kubina, 46, now faces only a single count of neglect of a dependent, and has agreed to take the stand against Choate, whom she divorced from jail in December. Kubina faces a sentence of 25 to 35 years on the remaining charge, according to the plea agreement.
Choate, 39, is set to go to trial on murder charges Aug. 14. Lake County Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell has placed a gag order on attorneys in the case.
Some potential details of Kubina’s possible testimony are revealed in a stipulation of facts filed with the plea agreement.
Kubina told authorities she began home-schooling Christian in 2007, when the family lived in Merrillville, because Choate had began beating the boy daily and she was concerned that school officials would notice Christian’s bruises and report the family to the Department of Child Services.
At the time, Kubina and Choate had nine children living with them, and Kubina feared all of them would be taken into protective custody if authorities investigated the abuse, the agreement states.
The beatings began after Riley walked in on Choate and his younger stepbrother in a bedroom at the house, the document states, and the two boys were wearing no pants. Christian, the document states, had told the younger boy that “to be brothers, (he) had to play the ‘hump game’ with Christian Choate.”
Christian thereafter was confined to his room in the basement of the Merrillville home, allowed to leave only to eat and use the bathroom, Kubina told authorities. Kubina said the boy was confined there even after they noticed he was relieving himself in the basement.
When the family moved to the rundown trailer park in Gary’s Black Oak neighborhood where Kubina’s mother and sister lived, Christian was confined first to their trailer’s bathroom, then to a bedroom the boy shared with Choate, according to Kubina.
In late 2008, Christian escaped from the trailer. When Kubina and one of her nieces found the boy at a nearby Walgreens, Choate beat him and thereafter kept the boy in a dog cage, the plea agreement states. Christian’s older sister was assigned to feed and care for him.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Choate trial delayed until the fall
August 01, 2012
Bill Dolan
CROWN POINT | Lake Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell is delaying the murder trial of a Hammond man whose son died following a year of neglect, beatings and being locked in a dog cage.
The defense lawyer for Riley L. Choate, 40, will get an additional two months to prepare for what is expected to be an emotional and convoluted case in which Choate family members will be the star prosecution witnesses and come under intense cross-examination to shake their credibility.
The trial will begin Oct. 9.
Riley Choate is pleading not guilty to allegations his abuse and neglect caused the death of Christian Choate, 13, whose body was found May 4, 2011, buried in a shallow grave beneath the soil and concrete floor of a mobile home storage shed in Gary's Black Oak neighborhood.
The trial was set to begin the week of Aug. 13. Hammond lawyer Randy Godshalk requested a continuance Wednesday in an unscheduled pretrial hearing.
Godshalk said he hasn't received written transcripts of crucial testimony given last fall by the defendant's daughter Christina Choate, 17.
Christina Choate said she regularly struck her brother, Christian, chained him to a bed and caged him by order of their father and stepmother to avoid being punished herself. Christina hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing.
The stepmother, Kimberly Kubina Choate, 47, initially was charged with the boy's murder, too, but was allowed to plead guilty in May to the lesser charge of child neglect in return for her testimony against her former husband, Riley Choate.
Godshalk said he must have more time to study Christina's testimony if he is expected to intelligently question her account of the events around the boy's death.
Deputy prosecutors opposed any delay in a case, which has dragged on for more than a year, but Boswell said it would be unfair to force Riley Choate to trial in two weeks with defense preparations incomplete.
Boswell adjusted her trial schedule to avoid having to push the case into early 2013.
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August 01, 2012
Bill Dolan
CROWN POINT | Lake Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell is delaying the murder trial of a Hammond man whose son died following a year of neglect, beatings and being locked in a dog cage.
The defense lawyer for Riley L. Choate, 40, will get an additional two months to prepare for what is expected to be an emotional and convoluted case in which Choate family members will be the star prosecution witnesses and come under intense cross-examination to shake their credibility.
The trial will begin Oct. 9.
Riley Choate is pleading not guilty to allegations his abuse and neglect caused the death of Christian Choate, 13, whose body was found May 4, 2011, buried in a shallow grave beneath the soil and concrete floor of a mobile home storage shed in Gary's Black Oak neighborhood.
The trial was set to begin the week of Aug. 13. Hammond lawyer Randy Godshalk requested a continuance Wednesday in an unscheduled pretrial hearing.
Godshalk said he hasn't received written transcripts of crucial testimony given last fall by the defendant's daughter Christina Choate, 17.
Christina Choate said she regularly struck her brother, Christian, chained him to a bed and caged him by order of their father and stepmother to avoid being punished herself. Christina hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing.
The stepmother, Kimberly Kubina Choate, 47, initially was charged with the boy's murder, too, but was allowed to plead guilty in May to the lesser charge of child neglect in return for her testimony against her former husband, Riley Choate.
Godshalk said he must have more time to study Christina's testimony if he is expected to intelligently question her account of the events around the boy's death.
Deputy prosecutors opposed any delay in a case, which has dragged on for more than a year, but Boswell said it would be unfair to force Riley Choate to trial in two weeks with defense preparations incomplete.
Boswell adjusted her trial schedule to avoid having to push the case into early 2013.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Court orders Christian Choate's body released to mother
September 07, 2012
By Susan Brown
CROWN POINT | A Lake County court ordered the body of Christian Choate released to his biological mother Friday during a hearing in advance of his father's murder trial.
The 13-year-old boy's body was found in May 2011 in a shallow grave in a Black Oak mobile home park -- two years after officials say he died.
His father, Riley Choate, 40, faces a host of charges besides murder in connection with the boy's death. Christian's stepmother, Kimberly Kubina, 47, pleaded guilty in May to a neglect charge.
The plea deal calls for a prison sentence of 25 to 30 years when sentencing is argued following Choate's trial.
The boy's body has been in the possession of the Lake County coroner. On Friday, Lake Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell ordered the body to be released to his mother, identified as Aimee Eriks in court records.
The boy's maternal grandfather, Bernard Eriks, had requested the boy's remains if Boswell ruled against his daughter.
In a letter to Boswell, Bernard Eriks said the boy held a special place in his and his wife's hearts due to their having raised the boy the first couple years of his life.
Also Friday, Boswell set another pretrial hearing for Riley Choate — responding to another request by Choate for a change of attorney.
Choate is represented by Hammond attorney Randy Godshalk. Godshalk has made attempts to withdraw from the case because Choate has run out of money to pay him.
Godshalk proposed continuing to represent Choate for the reduced pay of a public defender, but Boswell turned down the offer, saying it would set a bad precedent.
Choate complained Friday about being kept in the dark on his case and asked for a public defender. Saying the trial was only a month away, Boswell denied the request but set another hearing on the matter for Sept. 21.
In other developments, court records state Boswell late last month denied a written request from Choate's girlfriend, Penny Murray, of Hammond, to marry Choate, who divorced Kubina since the couple's arrest last year.
"I have stood by his side proudly and will continue to do so," Murray wrote Boswell. What is wrong with these women that want to marry monsters!?
Murray's letter indicates an out-of-town relative of Choate would be available to stand in for Choate between Sept. 19 and Oct. 31.
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September 07, 2012
By Susan Brown
CROWN POINT | A Lake County court ordered the body of Christian Choate released to his biological mother Friday during a hearing in advance of his father's murder trial.
The 13-year-old boy's body was found in May 2011 in a shallow grave in a Black Oak mobile home park -- two years after officials say he died.
His father, Riley Choate, 40, faces a host of charges besides murder in connection with the boy's death. Christian's stepmother, Kimberly Kubina, 47, pleaded guilty in May to a neglect charge.
The plea deal calls for a prison sentence of 25 to 30 years when sentencing is argued following Choate's trial.
The boy's body has been in the possession of the Lake County coroner. On Friday, Lake Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell ordered the body to be released to his mother, identified as Aimee Eriks in court records.
The boy's maternal grandfather, Bernard Eriks, had requested the boy's remains if Boswell ruled against his daughter.
In a letter to Boswell, Bernard Eriks said the boy held a special place in his and his wife's hearts due to their having raised the boy the first couple years of his life.
Also Friday, Boswell set another pretrial hearing for Riley Choate — responding to another request by Choate for a change of attorney.
Choate is represented by Hammond attorney Randy Godshalk. Godshalk has made attempts to withdraw from the case because Choate has run out of money to pay him.
Godshalk proposed continuing to represent Choate for the reduced pay of a public defender, but Boswell turned down the offer, saying it would set a bad precedent.
Choate complained Friday about being kept in the dark on his case and asked for a public defender. Saying the trial was only a month away, Boswell denied the request but set another hearing on the matter for Sept. 21.
In other developments, court records state Boswell late last month denied a written request from Choate's girlfriend, Penny Murray, of Hammond, to marry Choate, who divorced Kubina since the couple's arrest last year.
"I have stood by his side proudly and will continue to do so," Murray wrote Boswell. What is wrong with these women that want to marry monsters!?
Murray's letter indicates an out-of-town relative of Choate would be available to stand in for Choate between Sept. 19 and Oct. 31.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Judge appoints public defender co-counsel in Choate case
September 21, 2012 1:30 pm • Susan Brown
CROWN POINT | Hammond attorney Randy Godshalk will continue to go unpaid in his defense of Riley Choate but will be joined by an attorney from the public defender's office.
Lake Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell arrived at the compromise during Friday's final pretrial hearing for Choate, who is accused of murder in the death of his 13-year-old son. The trial is set Oct. 9.
Christian Choate's bruised and emaciated body was found in a shallow grave in May 2011 in a Black Oak mobile park two years after he is believed to have died. Court documents allege the boy was repeatedly beaten for several years and kept in a cage for as long as a year until his death in April 2009.
Riley Choate has insisted on new legal representation, both because of Boswell's decision not to allow Godshalk to be paid as a public defender and also what Choate contends to be a lack of attention by the unpaid Godshalk to preparing his case.
Choate and his supporters ran out of money to pay for private counsel, leading Godshalk to propose he either be paid the reduced rate of a public defender to continue with the case or allowed to withdraw.
Boswell turned down the proposals, arguing they would set a precedent.
Godshalk on Friday spoke to the breakdown in the relationship to his client, denying he has withheld documents or not taken steps in Choate's defense.
Godshalk said he has provided all discovery either to Choate himself or to others on Choate's behalf.
"You may be looking for things that aren't there," Boswell said to Choate, admonishing Choate about talking to others in the jail about his case.
"You have two competent attorneys," she told a disgruntled Choate. "Let them guide you through this process."
Assisting Godshalk will be public defender Lemuel Stigler.
In past hearings, Boswell warned Choate about the consequences of changing attorneys, including a long delay in his trial.
While Boswell relented somewhat in appointing Choate a public defender to assist Godshalk, she would not entertain the thought of delaying the trial, now just two weeks away.
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September 21, 2012 1:30 pm • Susan Brown
CROWN POINT | Hammond attorney Randy Godshalk will continue to go unpaid in his defense of Riley Choate but will be joined by an attorney from the public defender's office.
Lake Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell arrived at the compromise during Friday's final pretrial hearing for Choate, who is accused of murder in the death of his 13-year-old son. The trial is set Oct. 9.
Christian Choate's bruised and emaciated body was found in a shallow grave in May 2011 in a Black Oak mobile park two years after he is believed to have died. Court documents allege the boy was repeatedly beaten for several years and kept in a cage for as long as a year until his death in April 2009.
Riley Choate has insisted on new legal representation, both because of Boswell's decision not to allow Godshalk to be paid as a public defender and also what Choate contends to be a lack of attention by the unpaid Godshalk to preparing his case.
Choate and his supporters ran out of money to pay for private counsel, leading Godshalk to propose he either be paid the reduced rate of a public defender to continue with the case or allowed to withdraw.
Boswell turned down the proposals, arguing they would set a precedent.
Godshalk on Friday spoke to the breakdown in the relationship to his client, denying he has withheld documents or not taken steps in Choate's defense.
Godshalk said he has provided all discovery either to Choate himself or to others on Choate's behalf.
"You may be looking for things that aren't there," Boswell said to Choate, admonishing Choate about talking to others in the jail about his case.
"You have two competent attorneys," she told a disgruntled Choate. "Let them guide you through this process."
Assisting Godshalk will be public defender Lemuel Stigler.
In past hearings, Boswell warned Choate about the consequences of changing attorneys, including a long delay in his trial.
While Boswell relented somewhat in appointing Choate a public defender to assist Godshalk, she would not entertain the thought of delaying the trial, now just two weeks away.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Lisette for the update I had kind of forgotten about this case. I cant wait to follow the trial now!!!
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Yes Lisette for the updates. I had forgotten about this case and I just skimmed the thread, I clearly remember that everyone including every department failed this little angel boy. I hope sperm donor rots in prison and I hope step mommy gets the max!
The trial starts on October 9th.
The trial starts on October 9th.
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Riley Choate's trial starts on October 9.
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Judge bumps Choate trial to January
CROWN POINT | Lake Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell on Monday appointed the public defender's office the lone counsel for Riley Choate, delaying Choate's murder trial to January.
Choate, 40, was scheduled for trial next week on murder and other charges in the death of his 13-year-old son, Christian Choate. The boy's remains were found buried in a shallow grave in a Black Oak mobile home park last year after a tip to police.
Public defender Lemuel Stigler had been appointed co-counsel to Choate's private attorney Sept. 21 as a compromise measure in answer to Choate's complaint about the conduct of the case.
Stigler told the court he since had been working diligently on the case but was unclear about his role as co-counsel to a private attorney.
Stigler said while some states set clear direction on the question, Indiana had not determined whether a public defender can be a co-counsel.
Stigler told the court he wanted to be a full participant in asking the court to clarify his role.
Choate's Hammond attorney Randy Godshalk told the court he had reservations about the arrangement, saying he and Stigler had very different styles of presenting a case in court.
Boswell also heard issues surrounding the timeliness of the exchange of documents among the attorneys, who also questioned whether deposed out-of-state witnesses needed to return for testimony at trial.
At the conclusion of the 45-minute hearing, Boswell agreed to continue the trial to Jan. 7, release Godshalk and hold a hearing Oct. 17 on witness testimony.
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CROWN POINT | Lake Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell on Monday appointed the public defender's office the lone counsel for Riley Choate, delaying Choate's murder trial to January.
Choate, 40, was scheduled for trial next week on murder and other charges in the death of his 13-year-old son, Christian Choate. The boy's remains were found buried in a shallow grave in a Black Oak mobile home park last year after a tip to police.
Public defender Lemuel Stigler had been appointed co-counsel to Choate's private attorney Sept. 21 as a compromise measure in answer to Choate's complaint about the conduct of the case.
Stigler told the court he since had been working diligently on the case but was unclear about his role as co-counsel to a private attorney.
Stigler said while some states set clear direction on the question, Indiana had not determined whether a public defender can be a co-counsel.
Stigler told the court he wanted to be a full participant in asking the court to clarify his role.
Choate's Hammond attorney Randy Godshalk told the court he had reservations about the arrangement, saying he and Stigler had very different styles of presenting a case in court.
Boswell also heard issues surrounding the timeliness of the exchange of documents among the attorneys, who also questioned whether deposed out-of-state witnesses needed to return for testimony at trial.
At the conclusion of the 45-minute hearing, Boswell agreed to continue the trial to Jan. 7, release Godshalk and hold a hearing Oct. 17 on witness testimony.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Lisette, what would we do w/out you???????
Thank you for posting the update and the fact the trial has been delayed. This guy needs to rot in the pit fires of hell!
Thank you for posting the update and the fact the trial has been delayed. This guy needs to rot in the pit fires of hell!
Re: Christian Choate 13 found dead, Father & Step Mother arrested/Christian Wrote About Wanting His Family to Like Him/Step Mom cops a plea & will testify against bio Dad/Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage!!
Thanks lisette. If he can afford a private attorney why does he qualify for a Public Defender? That makes no sense to me.
Guest- Guest
Father sentenced 80 years in death of son who was kept in cage
By Kari Huus, Staff Writer, NBC News
A judge in Indiana sentenced former Gary resident Riley Choate to 80 years in prison on Friday for neglect in the death of his son, a 13-year-old who had been regularly beaten, confined to a dog cage for two years, and fed a starvation diet.
The boy, Christian Choate, weighed less than 50 pounds when he died on April 4, 2009, of blunt force trauma to the head, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"The pain and the suffering, the degradation this baby went through for two years of his life is incomprehensible," Lake County Superior Court Judge Diane Boswell said, according to the report.
A sister of the victim — one of as many as 10 children who lived with Choate and his wife in a trailer in Gary, Ind. — said that on the day of his death Christian had refused to eat, enraging his father, who punched the boy several times with "full force" before throwing him back in the cage, said the Tribune, citing court records.
Choate and his wife, Kimberly Kubina, the boy’s stepmother, were accused of burying the boy on their property and moving the family to Kentucky shortly thereafter, telling others that Christian had run away.
Deputy Prosecutor Michael Woods described Choate's abuse of Christian as persistent, cruel and depraved, according to a report in the Northwest Indiana Times.
"Christian Choate sat in that cage, losing his mind, losing his strength and probably his humanity,” Woods said, while his father sat at the desk next to the cage playing games on his computer, according to the report.
"There were many other children in this house. They all saw Christian suffer. Those images haunt their sleep and drive them back into counseling," the prosecutor said.
The boy’s body, buried under concrete with a Bible and a cross in the Gary, Ind. mobile home park, was found in May 2011.
"We feel very strongly that the system failed this child, this young man, Christian Choate," Lake County Indiana Sheriff John Buncich said at a press conference Friday. "The system failed him and a lot of information slipped through the cracks and we feel his life could have been saved if things had been dealt with in a different manner."
In December, Choate pleaded guilty to a Class A felony for neglect of a dependent causing death, and felonies for moving the boy’s body and depriving his daughter, Christina, of an education. He also admitted to being a habitual offender for previous felony theft convictions, the Times said. In doing so, he avoided a jury trial on charges of murder, battery, criminal confinement and obstruction of justice. In the plea deal, he was sentenced to 80 years instead of a possible 120 if convicted of the original charges. 80 or 120 years does not matter. He w/be dead anyway. Good Riddance!!
Before the sentencing on Friday, Choate apologized for his actions, the Chicago Tribune reported: "All my actions will haunt me forever. I loved my son."
Kubina, who was also charged with child abuse, divorced Choate in 2011 and cooperated in his prosecution. As a result, she is due to be released from jail in February, the Tribune said.
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A judge in Indiana sentenced former Gary resident Riley Choate to 80 years in prison on Friday for neglect in the death of his son, a 13-year-old who had been regularly beaten, confined to a dog cage for two years, and fed a starvation diet.
The boy, Christian Choate, weighed less than 50 pounds when he died on April 4, 2009, of blunt force trauma to the head, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"The pain and the suffering, the degradation this baby went through for two years of his life is incomprehensible," Lake County Superior Court Judge Diane Boswell said, according to the report.
A sister of the victim — one of as many as 10 children who lived with Choate and his wife in a trailer in Gary, Ind. — said that on the day of his death Christian had refused to eat, enraging his father, who punched the boy several times with "full force" before throwing him back in the cage, said the Tribune, citing court records.
Choate and his wife, Kimberly Kubina, the boy’s stepmother, were accused of burying the boy on their property and moving the family to Kentucky shortly thereafter, telling others that Christian had run away.
Deputy Prosecutor Michael Woods described Choate's abuse of Christian as persistent, cruel and depraved, according to a report in the Northwest Indiana Times.
"Christian Choate sat in that cage, losing his mind, losing his strength and probably his humanity,” Woods said, while his father sat at the desk next to the cage playing games on his computer, according to the report.
"There were many other children in this house. They all saw Christian suffer. Those images haunt their sleep and drive them back into counseling," the prosecutor said.
The boy’s body, buried under concrete with a Bible and a cross in the Gary, Ind. mobile home park, was found in May 2011.
"We feel very strongly that the system failed this child, this young man, Christian Choate," Lake County Indiana Sheriff John Buncich said at a press conference Friday. "The system failed him and a lot of information slipped through the cracks and we feel his life could have been saved if things had been dealt with in a different manner."
In December, Choate pleaded guilty to a Class A felony for neglect of a dependent causing death, and felonies for moving the boy’s body and depriving his daughter, Christina, of an education. He also admitted to being a habitual offender for previous felony theft convictions, the Times said. In doing so, he avoided a jury trial on charges of murder, battery, criminal confinement and obstruction of justice. In the plea deal, he was sentenced to 80 years instead of a possible 120 if convicted of the original charges. 80 or 120 years does not matter. He w/be dead anyway. Good Riddance!!
Before the sentencing on Friday, Choate apologized for his actions, the Chicago Tribune reported: "All my actions will haunt me forever. I loved my son."
Kubina, who was also charged with child abuse, divorced Choate in 2011 and cooperated in his prosecution. As a result, she is due to be released from jail in February, the Tribune said.
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